A Gold Mine of 158B Shillings sitting in our homes. Kenyans could be sitting on a gold mine worth 158B shillings in their homes in form of unused goods. This is according to an inventory survey released by Nielsen Kenya in April, 2014
The survey, which was carried out across the country with the exception of North Eastern and Western, saw Nairobi region take the lead in unused goods worth 69B shillings followed closely by Eastern and Central with 26B and 22B respectively.
The value of the unused art collections per capita (per person) is the highest at Ksh. 144,073 followed by furniture at Ksh. 27,765 and Computers/Laptops Ksh. 25,057. The value of these goods comes to 4.94% of the country’s GDP.
When people have a financial need, they would rather ask for a loan from a friend or even a bank. Selling the items they don’t need or don’t use anymore is not at the top of their mind. Priscillia Muhia, Head of Marketing OLX Kenya says: “People need to realize that the items the keep in their homes could be valuable as a source of cash. Liquidating these personal long-term assets (converting them into cash) could improve their purchasing power while also optimizing these items ‘ value before they are fully depreciated or disposed as waste. “
40% of respondents in a survey revealed that they don’t sell their goods because they think they have nothing to sell. They fail to see that selling the goods they don’t use could get them enough money to meet their financial needs.
The AC Nielsen research shows that if we had a good turn-over of a fraction of the used items that people are keeping in their homes, 4 things will happen ;
1) More money will flow back into our economy , spurring demand for goods and services
2) People who are selling will be able to lower their cost of living by being able to offset the cost of upgrading into a new item with the revenue they will earn by selling the older item
3) Overall, other people looking for acquiring goods at lower price points, for example a student who has just gotten her/his first job will be able to afford high quality items at lower prices if they buy them used .
4) Where people don’t have to borrow money at a high-interest, they will make their lives even more cheaper